Letters From Past Voices
by dreamer.dancer.writer
Summary: Teddy Lupin is feeling down on his seventeenth birthday, before he receives the best present: a letter from his parents. Is this enough to cheer him up, or does he need more? ONE SHOT.


**A/N so yeah, second fanfic, first oneshot :D I like it, bit of a sucker for anything with Teddy in though :') Slightly different to my last fic, slight tearjerker this one perhaps, if I wrote it right :D  
>Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot, Teddy, Remus, Tonks, Harry, Andromeda and anything in the Potter universe is J.'s!<br>Again, please review, it's always nice to know what people think. Criticism is also always good, helps me become a better writer as I am far from perfect :D Anyhow, enjoy! **

Teddy Remus Lupin sat in his four poster bed in his dormitory on the dawn of his seventeenth birthday. He was a proud Gryffindor, his family was loving and he was surrounded by amazing friends who would make his birthday the best day he'd ever had. By all accounts he should have been on top of the world. Yet he felt undeniably sad. Today was the day he would come of age in the wizarding world, but his parents wouldn't be there to see it.

He groaned and fell back against the puffed up pillows behind him. He wished he'd just had one chance, just one, to meet his parents and see what sort of people they were for himself. Sure, his god-father Harry and the rest of his real and adopted family had told him how wonderful and loving and brave they both were, but it just wasn't the same as really _meeting _them.

Still, Harry had also told him how he'd had to cope without his parents, and Harry had gone through a harder time than Teddy had growing up, yet Teddy couldn't help but lie there and wish things had gone differently. He knew his parents had died trying to save the world from an evil they'd never seen before and never seen since, but try as he might he just couldn't find comfort in that. As evil as it sounded, he'd wished they'd not tried so hard to save the world and had stayed at home the day of the last battle of Hogwarts instead, with their son. But they'd gone, leaving Teddy with his mother's parents, and they'd died a hero's death.

Teddy's maternal grandparents had been fabulous and so had his god-fathers family. He couldn't have asked for a better substitute family, but it just wasn't the same. He sighed, turning his normally bright turquoise hair mousy brown in despair. He knew he'd have to act all happy and excited during the day, his friends and family certainly would be. He couldn't tell any of them how he was feeling, except maybe Harry, because Harry would know how he felt. After all, he'd gone through it himself.

Suddenly, the loud knock of beak against window reverberated around the room. Teddy hastily jumped out of bed and opened the window, not wanting his friends to wake up.

"Duke!" He exclaimed, recognizing his grandparent's owl. Duke hooted in reply and waved his right leg impatiently. Attached to it was a brown paper wrapped package.

"Alright, alright, keep your feathers on" Teddy muttered with a laugh as he undid the package. Then he grabbed some nuts from where he kept them in his trunk, fed them to the tawny owl and waved him off again. Heading back over to his bed, he collapsed onto it and pulled the hangings back around. He looked at the brown package in distaste.

Presents. If there was one thing Ted Remus Lupin really hated it was presents. He just felt he didn't deserve them, that he shouldn't have anything. He never even wanted to celebrate his birthday really, but having such a large extended family and being so popular, celebrating his birthday and getting a load of presents was one aspect of his life he really couldn't control.

And anyway, this one was from his grand-parents, and therefore slightly more bearable than ones he often got from admirers. Teddy slowly undid the wrapping with a shaking hand, before turning it upside down and shaking the contents out onto his bed. Another package slid out, this one wrapped in Muggle birthday paper, along with a thick letter. He reached for the letter first and tore it open. More bits of paper slid out, the top piece looking in slightly better condition than the rest. He took this piece first and read it.

_Teddy, _it read.

_How proud of you on your seventeenth birthday I am. So much like your mother, like your father, yet your own person as well. When your parents died so shortly after your grandfather I was so devastated, I didn't know how to go on. Yet I had you to look after Teddy and that kept me going. You and your cheerful ways and your way changing of your hair colour and eye colour to keep me amused kept my days bright even when the future looked bleak. We also know Harry is as proud of you as I and we are all so glad to have you in our lives. _

_I also know how much you don't like presents, however as it's your coming of age birthday I couldn't not give you something. Don't worry though, it's nothing bought. Just open it and I promise you'll love it._

_I also enclose a letter to you from your parents. They gave it to me before they headed out to the final battle, their fatal battle, making me promise to give it to you on your seventeenth birthday if they didn't make it. I took it from them, promising, not letting myself believe they wouldn't come back. But the worst that could happen happened, and from this world two of the bravest, brightest souls were taken. Your parents Teddy. I know they would've both been so proud of you Teddy and so sad they didn't get to see you grow up. Yet you've faced adversity and you've always seemed so happy and bright .I know you've found it hard at times and I'm so proud of you for battling on._

_I love you so much Teddy Remus._

_Grandma xxx_

Teddy finished reading his grandma's letter and took a deep bracing breath, a few tears running down his face. If that had been hard to read, it was going to be extra hard to read his parents letter. A letter from his parents! Suddenly excitement flooded Teddy and his hair turned bubblegum pink, something not dissimilar to what his mother used to do when she was excited.

He placed his grandma's letter by the side of his bed, grabbed his parents letter and taking another deep breath, began to read.

_Our dearest Teddy,_

_If you are reading this then Happy Seventeenth Birthday son. We are both so proud of you, even though we can't be with you. We want you to know we didn't want to die, but we both wanted to do our part in saving the wizarding world. If we could've, we would've chosen to stay with you but we both knew we wouldn't be able to live with ourselves if we did that._

_We both hope you've grown up with everyone around you, especially your Grandma and Harry Potter. Teddy, Harry will always be there for you and will understand your feelings about our death the most, because he had to grow up without his._

_We only knew you for such a short time, yet the time that we did know you for your brightened up our whole world and made it feel that much better, even though everything was a mess at that time. We also know you're a metamorphmagus, which made your mother so happy Teddy, she turned her hair even brighter to celebrate! We loved you Ted, we loved you more than we both thought possible. You were the one thing that kept us going through the dark days._

_People might talk about the battle Teddy and we can't promise they won't mention us, or won't say anything bad about us, but if they do that Teddy, please just ignore them. Just find comfort in the fact that we died to save you and the rest of the family._

_We both wish so much we could be there to see you grow up, see the kind of man you've become now. Seventeen years old Teddy. Seventeen years since the battle of Hogwarts and we both hope so much the world is a better place._

_There is nothing more we can say now Teddy, other than that we both love you so much and are so proud of you. It's hard to express just how much in a letter. We wish we could both be there to celebrate with you and tell you in person, but sometimes things don't work out the way you want them too. Give our love to the rest of the family Teddy, especially Harry and thank him for helping bring you up as we know he would have done._

_We love you Teddy Remus Lupin. Never forget that we love you. We'll be up here waiting for the day we can be joined again. Until then,_

_Mum and Dad xxxx_

Teddy read through the letter again and again, tears pouring down his face as he savoured the words written on the paper solely for him. This alone would make the whole day slightly easier. He now felt like he knew his parents slightly better and was certain that they loved him. He sighed happily and raked his eyes over the letter one last time before carefully placing it aside and unwrapping the parcel from his Grandma. A photo album slid out.

Teddy opened it up and flicked through the pages. He gasped. On each and every page was a photo of his family. The first half of the album was of his parents, them on their wedding day, them with Harry, them with member of the Order of the Phoenix, them with other members of the family. The first half with them ended with a picture of Tonks, Lupin and Teddy all together, Teddy and Tonks' hair the same bright turquoise. Teddy immediately turned his hair back to turquoise and gazed happily at the photo.

Then he turned the page and looked through the rest of the photos, photos of him and the rest of the family. There was even a photo of Uncle Fred, his Uncle George's twin who had died in the same battle as Teddy's parents. Teddy started crying again, looking at his uncles Fred and George, remembering his parents and thinking about the family he still had. He relaxed, knowing the future ahead was going to be a good one and safe in the knowledge his parents had loved him.


End file.
